The Civil War was not only about the fights in battle but the strategies on the battlefield, on and off. A strategy used was spies. The civil war involved espionage. Espionage usually involves accessing a place where information is stored. Civil war was the country's first espionage.
Women Spies
With men in power, women slowly became frustrated with the minimal say in society. Men were fighting wars, changing society, and declaring the future to the colonies. The women wanted to take action and decided to find a way into the war. Women would either dress as men, and sneak into the army or would work as spies. The women who chose to work as spies would go under cover so their true identity wouldn't be in danger. It was noted that some women's true identities were never found after dying undercover. Women would stay on the farms and watch the daily activities of the soldiers and military leaders. Women with special connections threw parties, and invited the enemy with hopes of finding information.
Harriet Tubman, a heroic feminine leader during the civil war times, was asked by the Union army to gather information on the
Harriet Tubman
confederates. The Unions had heard of Harriet's successful Underground Railroad Expedition and became impressed and trusted that Harriet would help greatly. Harriet had began to work with black men and started gathering bands of black men on scouting expeditions.Harriet and the men gathered intelligence on the Confederate troops such as movements, size of the armies, how well the confederates were armed and information on the land itself. Harriet had ordered for some of the men to stay as saves on plantations to find information, this information would be reported to Harriet. Harriet and her men had many victories while helping the Union. The biggest victory was the raid at Combahee River. The Union army gave harriet and her men, three gunboats and 150 black soldiers led by Colonel James Montgomery. The group had been victorious and managed to destroy some Confederate railroads and bridges, took up mines in the river, destroyed stockpiled army goods and freed 800 slaves. Harriet became a respected woman and soon received the nickname as "The General."
Important Spies
Belle Boyd, a young spy for the confederacy. The Union's had planned to attack Front Royal. Boyd had known about this attack and rode 15 miles and risked her life dodging through a battle to inform General Stonewall Jackson. Belle was born into a southern wealthy family and had become a spy at age 17. Boyd was devoted and after being imprisoned in Washington and arrested over 7 times she still continued to pursue her duty as a spy.
Two famous women were Sarah Emonds and another woman with the name unknown. Sarah was orginally a Union nurse, yet became a spy and disguised herself as a male. The other woman, unknown, was positioned as a maid in the Confederate White House, and gathered information to give to the Union.
Spy Communication
Spies communicated through telegraphing and semaphore relay systems. A semaphore is a system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags certain positions according to an alphabetic code.
Another way of communication was codes and ciphers. Ciphers are secret codes that were written to for communication between armies and spies. The opposing army was not able to read the messages because of the special codes that were used. The two armies' codes gradually became more complicated to make their communication safer. To confuse the opposing army secret code names and nicknames were used to ensure safety in case the message was found. Anson Stager, the creator of the first cipher for the Western Union.
Some messages were written in colorless liquid made visible by milk. Messages were hidden in the bottom of vegetable baskets or they were in hollowed out eggs in a basket. It was common to find messages in more than one piece. Many spies tore their messages apart and sent them with separate couriers. Often, spies carried cheery letters to relatives as a cover for their mission. This was all to protect the opposing army, and keep the missions top secret. Slave owners used their slaves to send messages. They would put a piece of clothing on a clothes line to signal where the union troops were. Slaves were often spies. They were resourceful and often found information when whites would carelessly repeat information, expecting that blacks wouldn't understand, due to their lack of education. Cryptography was often used to decode the opposing sides messages. A popular system to cryptography was matching commonly used letters from words in the coded message and seeing if they matched the letters on a cryptographer.
unscramble the cipher
( ) ☼ space ) ☼ space @ space $)☆ ( ^ ♥ space - ( ) ☼ space ) ☼ space- ( ^ space { ☆ ^ space / & space $ / % ^ space ☼ ☆) ^ ☼ space ! ☼ ^ % space - / space ! ☼ ^
Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Confederate Spies
Before the war had begun a group of confederate spies had been placed in Washington, D.C. Thomas Jordan, a former U.S. army officer wanted the group of spies to learn through demonstration and exposure, found in washington. In the Summer of 1861, Rose O'Neal Greenhow was asked to find information to help the Confederates. Greenhow was a southern widow with high social standing. Greenhow was able to get a great deal of good information to the Confederates. One of the first battles of the war was the battle of Bull Run. The Unions had planned a sneak attack into Manasass, however Greenhow had discovered this earlier and reported back to the confederates. A true confederate hero was Sam Davis. In Tennessee on November 20th, 1863 davis was captured. Davis had been carrying soldiers depositions and important union papers. The Union army gave him the choice or execution or handing the papers with no harm. He was hanged after refusing to do as asked. Although the amount of union spies were greater, the confederate spies were wealthier, making systems financeable.
Union Spies
Allan Pinkerton
The union spies outnumbered the confederate spies, greatly. The amount of spies was 10% of the union army. There were 170,000 black men used as spies. Allan Pinkerton, a detective but worked as a spy for the union army had began trying to establish a network of spies using many of his own investigators. Allan was responsible for Rose O'Neal Greenhow's arrest. Allan Pinkerton was the head of the Northern Secret Service Unit. Pinkerton was not always successful. In 1862 Pinkerton had passed some inaccurate information, involving troop movements and numbers, causing the Unions to suffer on the battlefield. The progress in the north had given the spies a technological advancement .
Spies in Disguise
Sarah Edmonds as "Frank Thompson" as a soldier
By: Zoe Bornhorst
Women were not even thought of to fight in the Civil War, although many women either enlisted due to a loved one in the war, or because they wanted to support their country. Women soldiers took masculine names, disguised themselves as men, and hid the fact that they were female. They would have easily been identified at physical examinations, but they were conducted poorly, sometimes only requiring them to be able to fire a weapon. Many women helped the war by serving as nurses, spies, and/or soldiers. Sarah Edmonds went by the name of Frank Thompson, and was a nurse, spy, messenger, and Union soldier. When she enlisted at the beginning of the war, she was assigned to the hospital as a nurse, due to the fact that she was short. Next, Edmonds infiltrated Rebel lines disguised as a black man. She bought clothing from a fugitive slave, obtained a wig of real hair, and colored her head, hands, and arms with silver nitrate. In Yorktown, Edmonds was put to work with slaves. She carried buckets of water around camp. This was a job that was able to gather intelligence about the fortification. She recorded that she saw Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston.
Duke University, Special Collections Library,. "Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers at Duke." Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. Duke University, May 1996. Web. 06 May 2011. <http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/greenhow/>.
Markle, Donald E. "Sarah Emma Edmonds Biography Page." The American Civil War Home Page. Civil War Homepage, 8 Jly 2004. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/edmondsbio.htm>.
War Spies
Eliza Paton
Introduction
The Civil War was not only about the fights in battle but the strategies on the battlefield, on and off. A strategy used was spies. The civil war involved espionage. Espionage usually involves accessing a place where information is stored. Civil war was the country's first espionage.
Women Spies
With men in power, women slowly became frustrated with the minimal say in society. Men were fighting wars, changing society, and declaring the future to the colonies. The women wanted to take action and decided to find a way into the war. Women would either dress as men, and sneak into the army or would work as spies. The women who chose to work as spies would go under cover so their true identity wouldn't be in danger. It was noted that some women's true identities were never found after dying undercover. Women would stay on the farms and watch the daily activities of the soldiers and military leaders. Women with special connections threw parties, and invited the enemy with hopes of finding information.
Harriet Tubman, a heroic feminine leader during the civil war times, was asked by the Union army to gather information on the
Harriet Tubman
confederates. The Unions had heard of Harriet's successful Underground Railroad Expedition and became impressed and trusted that Harriet would help greatly. Harriet had began to work with black men and started gathering bands of black men on scouting expeditions.Harriet and the men gathered intelligence on the Confederate troops such as movements, size of the armies, how well the confederates were armed and information on the land itself. Harriet had ordered for some of the men to stay as saves on plantations to find information, this information would be reported to Harriet. Harriet and her men had many victories while helping the Union. The biggest victory was the raid at Combahee River. The Union army gave harriet and her men, three gunboats and 150 black soldiers led by Colonel James Montgomery. The group had been victorious and managed to destroy some Confederate railroads and bridges, took up mines in the river, destroyed stockpiled army goods and freed 800 slaves. Harriet became a respected woman and soon received the nickname as "The General."
Important Spies
Belle Boyd, a young spy for the confederacy. The Union's had planned to attack Front Royal. Boyd had known about this attack and rode 15 miles and risked her life dodging through a battle to inform General Stonewall Jackson. Belle was born into a southern wealthy family and had become a spy at age 17. Boyd was devoted and after being imprisoned in Washington and arrested over 7 times she still continued to pursue her duty as a spy.
Two famous women were Sarah Emonds and another woman with the name unknown. Sarah was orginally a Union nurse, yet became a spy and disguised herself as a male. The other woman, unknown, was positioned as a maid in the Confederate White House, and gathered information to give to the Union.
Spy Communication
Spies communicated through telegraphing and semaphore relay systems. A semaphore is a system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags certain positions according to an alphabetic code.
Another way of communication was codes and ciphers. Ciphers are secret codes that were written to for communication between armies and spies. The opposing army was not able to read the messages because of the special codes that were used. The two armies' codes gradually became more complicated to make their communication safer. To confuse the opposing army secret code names and nicknames were used to ensure safety in case the message was found. Anson Stager, the creator of the first cipher for the Western Union.
Some messages were written in colorless liquid made visible by milk. Messages were hidden in the bottom of vegetable baskets or they were in hollowed out eggs in a basket. It was common to find messages in more than one piece. Many spies tore their messages apart and sent them with separate couriers. Often, spies carried cheery letters to relatives as a cover for their mission. This was all to protect the opposing army, and keep the missions top secret. Slave owners used their slaves to send messages. They would put a piece of clothing on a clothes line to signal where the union troops were. Slaves were often spies. They were resourceful and often found information when whites would carelessly repeat information, expecting that blacks wouldn't understand, due to their lack of education. Cryptography was often used to decode the opposing sides messages. A popular system to cryptography was matching commonly used letters from words in the coded message and seeing if they matched the letters on a cryptographer.
( ) ☼ space ) ☼ space @ space $)☆ ( ^ ♥ space - ( ) ☼ space ) ☼ space- ( ^ space { ☆ ^ space
/ & space $ / % ^ space ☼ ☆) ^ ☼ space ! ☼ ^ % space
- / space ! ☼ ^
Confederate Spies
Before the war had begun a group of confederate spies had been placed in Washington, D.C. Thomas Jordan, a former U.S. army officer wanted the group of spies to learn through demonstration and exposure, found in washington. In the Summer of 1861, Rose O'Neal Greenhow was asked to find information to help the Confederates. Greenhow was a southern widow with high social standing. Greenhow was able to get a great deal of good information to the Confederates. One of the first battles of the war was the battle of Bull Run. The Unions had planned a sneak attack into Manasass, however Greenhow had discovered this earlier and reported back to the confederates. A true confederate hero was Sam Davis. In Tennessee on November 20th, 1863 davis was captured. Davis had been carrying soldiers depositions and important union papers. The Union army gave him the choice or execution or handing the papers with no harm. He was hanged after refusing to do as asked. Although the amount of union spies were greater, the confederate spies were wealthier, making systems financeable.
Union Spies
Spies in Disguise
By: Zoe Bornhorst
Women were not even thought of to fight in the Civil War, although many women either enlisted due to a loved one in the war, or because they wanted to support their country. Women soldiers took masculine names, disguised themselves as men, and hid the fact that they were female. They would have easily been identified at physical examinations, but they were conducted poorly, sometimes only requiring them to be able to fire a weapon. Many women helped the war by serving as nurses, spies, and/or soldiers. Sarah Edmonds went by the name of Frank Thompson, and was a nurse, spy, messenger, and Union soldier. When she enlisted at the beginning of the war, she was assigned to the hospital as a nurse, due to the fact that she was short. Next, Edmonds infiltrated Rebel lines disguised as a black man. She bought clothing from a fugitive slave, obtained a wig of real hair, and colored her head, hands, and arms with silver nitrate. In Yorktown, Edmonds was put to work with slaves. She carried buckets of water around camp. This was a job that was able to gather intelligence about the fortification. She recorded that she saw Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston.
Bibliography:
Information
Groh, Mary Lou. "Maria "Belle" Boyd." Civil War Trust: Saving America's Civil War Battlefields. Civil War Trust, 2011. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/maria-belle-boyd.html>.
"Civil War - Union - Women." Bibliography Home Page. Muskingum. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://intellit.muskingum.edu/civwar_folder/civwarunwomen.html>
Duke University, Special Collections Library,. "Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers at Duke." Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. Duke University, May 1996. Web. 06 May 2011. <http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/greenhow/>.
Markle, Donald E. "Sarah Emma Edmonds Biography Page." The American Civil War Home Page. Civil War Homepage, 8 J
ly 2004. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/edmondsbio.htm>.
"Allan Pinkerton, Civil War Spies." Civil War, American Civil War, Reconstruction. Civil War Academy, 2007. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.civilwaracademy.com/allan-pinkerton.html>
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